Talk:Toxic metal

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[edit] Dispute

The ideas underpinning this article are mysterious to me, although I am sure it is well-intentioned.

  • First: Is the goal to also create articles on "toxic gases", "toxic organic fluorine compounds". To take a leap: are we to anticipate articles on "healthful metals," "bad years", "nice people," "unhealthy activities," "difficult languages" "dangerous automobiles"? Is this type of article the stuff of an encyclopedia? The topic, which is a fine subject for conversation over coffee or perhaps something more intoxicating, seems capricious or arbitrary in scope.
  • Second, the article appears to be original research: someone's ideas of what constitutes "toxic" and what constitutes "metal" (I dont think that the physics definition of metal is adhered to). And the article discusses the mechanisms of toxicity in a simplistic manner that potentially misleads readers or represents an original concept.
  • Third, the article is naive or, possibly, even unscientific. It implies that a metal in solution possesses a toxicity independent of its ligands, which is simplistic and misleading. Also the article makes sweeping statements.
Of course all of us get caught up in our ideas for useful articles (me too), but we rely on each other to maintain quality control. Perhaps, the present article can be transformed into something useful and encyclopedic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Smokefoot (talk • contribs) 14:41, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
The inherent problem of wikis is that articles are not right from the start: 1) perfect and 2) written by a professional with decades of experience. The term "heavy metal" is used so loosely that it is essentially useless as a scientific term. "Toxic metal" is a better reference specifically to lead, mercury, cadmium and the rest. Different metals have different kinds of toxicity, but when people talk about "heavy metal poisoning", they're referring to a specific subset of heavy metals that have similar toxicity behavior (chronic, accumulating, neurotoxic). --Vuo (talk) 18:28, 26 November 2007 (UTC)